Dark before the Dawn
by electrikbloom
Summary: COMPLETE  A short story about the pains and lengths that heartache can drive you to, with shocking consequences. Cody/OC/Ted.
1. It's always darkest before the dawn

Hello, this is my first wrestling fanfiction; having read the work on here for a couple of years myself I decided to give it a shot! I have previously posted this on another website (if it seems a bit familiar to you) but I have added to this and edited the work. Sorry it is very short – the next parts are longer, I just wanted to set the scene. Promise. I hope you enjoy it, please review :)

xxx

I can safely say that the day I got married was the happiest, most perfect day of my life. And I mean perfect. I had the perfect venue, perfect wedding car, perfect dress – and I was marrying the most perfect man. Cody Runnels – better known to his fans as Cody Rhodes...

"_Come on," I said grabbing Cody's hand and pulling him up out of his chair to stand with me._

"_What?" He asked standing up next to me._

"_It's our first dance!"_

"_Oh, Scarlett, do we have to?" He sighed, running a hand nervously through his hair._

_I gasped, a look of shock and bewilderment taking over my face, "WHAT!"_

"_But I'm… nervous… I can't dance. I don't do dancing." Cody replied, shuffling on the spot, a red blush slowly creeping up from his neck to his face._

_I giggled, "You're scared of dancing in front of your family and friends?" He nodded, "But you happily prance around in your underwear every week in front of millions of strangers?"_

_Cody gasped, "I do not __prance__!"_

"_Strut?"_

"_That's better," he laughed whilst placing a soft kiss upon my lips._

"_Good. Then let's go!" And as we both stepped into the middle of the dance floor neither of us cared that we couldn't dance, that the song that was playing wasn't the one we had requested – we were so absorbed in each other that it didn't matter._

So if it was all so perfect then why was I in the position I was in at the moment?  
>In mine and Cody's house, in our bedroom, on our bed, lying naked underneath his best-friend Ted DiBiasie who was also naked. I pulled Ted closer to me, <strong>"If only you could see me now Cody" <strong>I thought, kissing Ted hungrily on the lips; neither of us should be in this position, we were both married.

I knew why**I** was here; and I had manipulated Ted into coming with me.


	2. Dancing with the devil

**[EARLIER THAT NIGHT]**

"Hey Scarlett, where are you going?" my close friend Natalya asked me as I stormed around backstage at RAW.

"To ask Cody to make a decision once and for all: does he love me or does he not!" I shouted, blinking back the tears; I wouldn't cry over this jerk.

"Hey, hey – what has brought this on Scarlett?" She asked, putting a comforting arm around my shoulders and redirecting me back down the corridor towards her dressing room.

"You know as well as I do that Cody isn't faithful to me. You must have seen the amount of women he sleeps with when you're on the road." Natalya looked uncomfortable at my question, "Sorry…"

"I'm not blaming you Nat, I'm blaming myself. Obviously I am not good enough for Mr Cody 'Dashing' Runnels."

"Don't say that Scar! He loves you! Why else do you think he married you?"

"…To prove he can get married? So that he's always got somebody to crawl back to when he fucks things up again? So that there is somebody sitting there with him by his side when he wakes up in hospital?" I sighed, "I think we're both too young for this. We got married way too young. Cody's career is just starting to excel, whereas I put mine on hold so that I could be with him. His career took priority over mine, how unfair is that? And the more popular he gets at work, the less I will see of him." I said, burying my head in one of the many pillows decorating the couch in Natalya's room.

She rubbed my back, "Do you love him?" she asked me. I nodded my head. "Do you trust him?" I hesitated; before shaking my head and finally letting the tears that were threatening to fall escape.

"Hey, did you travel all the way over here to say this to Cody?" Natalya questioned me after about ten minutes of silence, handing me a cup of tea, "I thought you were back home in England to see your friends?"

"Thanks," I smiled taking the tea and ignoring her question. About a minute later I decided to answer her though, "I didn't come back to say this to him. I came back surprise him. But on the flight home I realised that I wasn't always happy in this relationship. God knows I love him; but I am sick of being second best and feeling like shit most of the time. I know he probably can't help but be tempted when all these beautiful young women are throwing themselves at him daily, but when he's made a commitment to **me**… that's what gets me. How would _he_ feel if I decided to have three different men in every city I go to? How would _he_ feel if he called me up and asked if there was somebody else there and I denied it when he could clearly hear another voice in the background? How would _he_ feel if-" I cried, tears falling into the cup I was holding between my shaking hands.

Natalya hugged me tightly and gave me a sympathetic smile, "He's sharing room eighteen with Ted if you want to go and tell him whenever you are ready," she whispered into my ear.

I pulled a mirror out of my handbag and fixed my tear-stained face. "Thank you for everything Natalya," I smiled at her, "Seriously. I owe you one."

"Not a problem, that's what friends are for after all. If you need me, I'll be right here and you've got my number!" She grinned back.

I walked out into the dark corridor and started looking for room eighteen.

"…Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen … Eighteen," I counted out loud as I looked for their dressing room. **'****DiBiase Jr and Rhodes'** the piece of paper attached to the door read. I didn't bother to knock – I had seen it all before, and there were usually loads of people running in and out of their dressing room.

"Oh!" I exclaimed at the sight I saw as I entered into the room. Cody was still in his ring attire, straddling a young blonde girl, who was topless and giggling like mad.

"Could you shut the door on your way out Ted-" Cody said, still not turning around to see who it was; he was too absorbed in the girl beneath him.

"It's not Ted…" I whispered, fighting back the tears as I glared at his back. "Wha-? Oh! Scarlett! What are you doin-" he shouted at me. But before he could reach me I ran down the corridor and straight into Ted, as the tears began to fall freely from my eyes.

"Whoa! Where are you going Scar? And hey, why _are_ you here? I thought you were back home in England for a few more weeks still?" He asked me, a look of concern on his face as I wiped my tears away with the back of my hand. I was sick of crying over him. I was done.

"I came back to surprise Cody. But instead the joke was on me I got the surprise." I sniffed.

"Oh. Shit," he said looking at his feet, "Well… seems like a waste of a trip if you don't do anything. Why don't you come to my room?"

"Yeah that sounds great, but I thought you and Cody shared a room? I mean the sign on the door says you still do."

"Yeah, we technically do but I prefer to have my own space. It was great but…"

"But he kept bringing women back?"

Ted ignored me as we walked into his dressing room. I glared around at them room, still fuming after catching Cody out. I leant against the wall, watching Ted as he packed up his things. "**Two can play at that game Mr. Runnels…**" I thought, smirking to myself. I leant against the wall, pulled my top down lower, to show off my assets, hitched my skirt up a few more inches, fluffed my hair up and pouted in the direction of Ted. Yes, I may have looked like a slag. But at that moment I really didn't care.

"Would you like me to take you back home- oh!" He exclaimed as he turned around to see me. I sauntered over to him, swaying my hips as I did so, until I was right in front of him. "Take me wherever you like." I whispered, leaning in to kiss him…

And that's how I got into my current position. One thing lead to another and before you knew it – we were back at mine. Neither of us really wanted to be here. And I couldn't stop my mind from thinking about Cody.

"No!" I shouted, rolling Ted off of me, "We need to stop this. Neither of us wants to be here do we? You love your wife don't you?" He nodded and I smiled, "Good. Neither of us needs to mention this again. So – why don't you go home and tell your wife how much you love her. I'd love it if my husband would do that for me once in a while."

We both stood up and started pulling our clothes back on, dressing hurriedly in an attempt to avoid the impending awkward silence. But before either of us was fully dressed the door flew open and Cody stood there open-mouthed.

"Cody. It's not what it looks like…" Ted started to say throwing his jacket on his back.

"What!" Cody laughed, "Oh yeah, of course. I mean… of course you weren't caught having sex with my wife behind my back. Of course not! I'm clearly imagining my best friend and my partner together."

"No really-"

"Just get the fuck out!" He screamed, before turning to look at me. There wasn't any anger in his eyes like there had been when he looked at Ted, it was a look far worse. A look of disappointment. In the background I heard Ted's car pull out of the drive. I hope he took my advice and was going home to his wife.

"Why?" He asked. "Why would you do that?"

"To get back at you Cody!" When Cody looked at me, innocence written all over his face, I completely snapped. I refused to be portrayed as the bad guy. "How can you not understand? How! I am sick and tired of being lonely! I know you're not faithful to me, and I don't even want to know how many women you have had since we were married. You don't know how much it hurts, Cody. It hurts _so much!_ I have put my career on hold for you. I got married years earlier than I'd ever planned to, all for you Cody. And I never see you and when I do you treat me like shit. And for your information I did _not_ sleep with Ted as, unlike you, I have a conscience and felt regret that I was ever even in that position. I- I-" But before I could continue my outburst of anger at Cody I had broke down into tears. _Damn my emotions!_ I ran down the stairs and out to the car. I fumbled with the keys, but finally managed to locate the correct key and the engine eventually sprang to life. I took one last look at the house and drove off into the night. Away from Cody and his hypocritical bullshit.

xxx

Thank you for reading everyone. Please keep reviewing and messaging, I love hearing from you all! :)


	3. Shake it out

I had no idea where I was. I had only lived in America for seven months, and I wasn't really the adventurous type of person. Well this just made the whole situation that much better, I knew I should have taken Cody's advice and invested in a sat-nav.

"Shit," I thought, pulling off into the edge of the road, and then proceeded to smash my head off of the car horn, "Shit shit shit!" _'__Regrets collect like old friends, here to relive your darkest moments, I can see no way, I can see no way'_my phone was ringing. I scrambled around the car looking for my phone. "Come on, you're a fucking iPhone – how hard can you be to lose!" I exclaimed out loud, emptying the contents of my bag until it fell out onto the passenger seat. I glanced down at the screen to see countless texts, missed calls and voicemails.

"Hello?"

"Scarlett! Oh my God! You're alive!" Natalya cried down the phone.

"Hey, hey Nat – why the tears? Of course I'm alive."

"Scar! You've been gone for hours. Everybody's worried sick. Cody has been running around like a headless chicken. We thought you'd…."

"That I had what?"

"Killed yourself or something stupid… Cody said you were really upset and acting weirdly. Who knows what you could have got up to. Where are you now Scar?"

"I have no idea!" I said, tears running down my face as the stress and confusion of the whole day finally caught up with me, "I'm scared Nat."

"Shh, shh. Now calm down. What can you see?" I blinked into the weak sunlight as the new morning started around me, wow I really had been gone for a while. I told Natalya the nearest landmark and she gave me a few simple directions towards the nearest gas station where she would be waiting for me.

I turned my car around feeling really guilty, millions of questions running through my mind. So did Cody really care about me? Or was it just a one-off trick of his conscience? Could I forgive him though, if he was being sincere, after everything he had done? How did I know that he wouldn't do it again?

About ten minutes later I came to a junction point, leading off in three directions. "Shit," I muttered, grabbing my phone to ask Nat where I was. "Oh, typical!" I yelled, throwing my phone onto the passenger seat, which flashed '**BATTERY LOW'** before shutting off completely. I decided to turn left, down a long dark road which had yet to be hit by the early morning night – and I could vaguely make out lights coming from buildings at the end of the road. It had also started to rain so maybe I could drop by and borrow a phone and call Natalya or get some more directions…

A few hundred metres down the road my mind switched back to Cody. I love him; I can't deny that. But do I trust him…?

Before I knew it my eyes were clouded over as my emotions fought with my conscience, and the lights were getting closer, but I continued to press forward. I wiped my eyes, so that I could see where I was going; "Oh God no!" I screamed as I saw a car driving straight towards me. I slammed on the brakes, but the car swerved on the wet tarmac and continued towards the oncoming vehicle…

...

I stared around at the bright white space surrounding me. Was I dead? Was I dreaming? How had I ended up here? And then it all came flooding back to me; the fight, the tears – the car crash.

I looked down at my body, various tubes were coming out of me and there were bandages covering my body completely like a mummy. I stared around the room, piles of presents lay in the far corner of the room, and on the table next to me was a massive bouquet of flowers and dozens of get well soon cards. And in the chair next to the table softly sleeping was Cody curled up into a ball, using a teddy bear with 'Speedy recovery' emblazoned on its chest for a pillow. I stared at him for what seemed like an eternity before he started to arouse.

"Scarlett!" He smiled, leaping out of the chair and rushing to my side. "You're awake. Finally! How are you feeling? Do you need anything? Are you…?" He stared at my with a curious expression on his face. "What?" He asked me.

I stared at him, taking in his appearance. He hadn't shaved in days and seemed to be wearing the same clothes as the night that I left him. His hair was messy and out of place and he looked really tired. But damn, he still looked gorgeous.

"How long have I been here?" I croaked out, my voice weak from having not spoken for a while.

"About three or four days now. I was so worried when I heard you were in a crash. I just kept thinking about how badly I had treated you, how much I need you and how I couldn't bear the thought of loosing you Scar. I apologize for hurting you so much baby, I didn't realise it hurt you so badly. And that makes me a bad husband. But I a m changing now. I give you my word. You mean the world to me Emma and want to make you happy and give you all the love you deserve, so from this moment onwards I vow to change! But if you still hate me, and I don't blame you, I'll walk out of here right now and I will never bother you again. But don't forget that I will always love you; no matter what."  
>I smiled up at him through my tears and held to my arms to him, embracing him in a hug. "This is why I love you Cody. This is why I married you. I love you; I always have and always will, no matter how much you may have hurt me. I forgive you and I am willing to put the past behind us." I whispered in his ear, "Now go and have a shower. You need to make yourself dashing again, stinky." And as he laughed to himself as he headed towards the door I knew we would be happy again… for now at least.<p>

Xxx

Thank you all so much for reading, it feels good to be back posting again. I'm going to be using a lot of this work in my creative writing classes at uni (hence I want to get back into the swing of things) and I hope you've enjoyed it.  
>Within the next few days I'm going to start a new, longer, story which I am super stoked about! Still haven't completely decided who it will be about, right now I'm thinking The MizOC/Evan Bourne but it's subject to change. If you have any idea who you would like it to be about then please feel free to share!


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